Breaking Bread the Belgian Way

Published: January 15, 1997

HEFTY, rustic loaves of sourdough bread are the specialty of a new bakery, Le Pain Quotidien (French for ''the daily bread''), at 1131 Madison Avenue (84th Street). The spacious, countrified bakery-cafe is the first New York outpost of a chain of 23 bakeries in Belgium, most of which are franchises.

Alain Coumont, who is a partner in New York with two Belgians and two Americans, opened his first bakery six years ago in Brussels. It became so popular that he cloned it, with each bakery featuring a huge communal table that seats up to 26 for breakfast, lunch, brunch or tea. The round, four-and-a-half-pound loaves, baked at present by Amy's Bread with Belgian whole-wheat flour, are $12 whole or $2.67 a pound. Le Pain Quotidien bakes its own baguettes and pastries and sells Belgian preserves and chocolates.

Photo: Alain Coumont and his partners have brought Le Pain Quotidien, their Belgian cafe-restaurant concept, to the Upper East Side. (Frances Roberts for The New York Times)